The Hohokam of Pueblo Grande

Pueblo Grande was a major Hohokam village on the north bank of the Salt River in what is now Phoenix, Arizona. Pueblo Grande was occupied for 1000 years, from about AD 500 - 1450. In addition to dwellings, it contained public architecture, such as the platform mound, a stone reinforced adobe structure the size of a football field, and a multi-storey adobe “big house” like the one at Casa Grande Ruins National Monument. The Hohokam were desert farmers who practiced irrigation agriculture, and who collaboratively created a sophisticated and far-reaching canal system to bring water from the Salt River to their fields in the valley. In addition to food crops, they grew cotton and may have had a monopoly on its production for several centuries. As artists, they are best known for making shell jewelry and distinctive red-on-buff pottery.